Dear :
This is so full of exciting Sustainable Transport things going on I have to send it out before any more info comes in. You are a part of something that is taking off big time!
Russell Sydney
310-450-7419
In this
Sustainable Transport Club
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Community based action+ One Local Activist big success with Green Ambassadors + Two Biodiesel Co-op Connect with Barak Obama – PR Coup + Three Santa Monica Bicycles – Expo Path, SMC, and North/South a commuter route + Four Strategy Session - Bringing Sustainable Transport to your area- Meeting at the end of July Outreach and Education - One Alt Car Expo Save the date and sign up now for Oct 19th and 20th - Two July 4th Santa Monica and Ventura - Three Results of AFV Conference – lots of good info on alternative fuels available - Four ST Club International –
EV Contacts overseas starting to develop – UK To Japan - Five – Biodiesel Roundtable - Save the date and get involved – Aug 1st Getting your Sustainable Ride * One Mini Compact Cars happening now – Smart Cars available in Glendale * Two Review of Phoenix Motor Cars – full capacity Electric Vehicles you can buy now Legislative Actions > One AB 700 Santa Monica Airport Pollution Study You can find the subject you want by looking for the separator bars or by using the active links above with the blue color and underlines. This is a two-way newsletter. You can get word out to the group by sending in any relevant information for inclusion in this newsletter. Please forward this to friends an co-workers – build the buzz |
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Community Based Action Local Activist big success with Green Ambassadors It is beautiful when a plan comes together and the Green Ambassadors just hit a real milestone with the Youth Environmental Leadership Summit held at Crossroads School in Santa Monica. It was beautiful. The event was packed with vibrant youthful energy with close to a hundred people participating. The students came from at least twelve different high schools and they were the program. They were each active with environmental efforts in their own areas and made presentations about these efforts. The Summit brought them together so they can start working together on larger efforts. It was networking coming alive for some really great young adults. The passion they brought to the event was amazing. You could tell that this was really about their future and what sort of world they would create. It was a great reminder of why all of us need to work to turn our environmental issue around with global warming and energy at the top of the list – do it for the kids! There is also a back-story here that shows how all of us can do our part and get results. The back-story covers both the adult and the student activists involved. The story shows how we move forward by just showing up and doing what we can by following our passions. It is for those of us who are thinking about doing more and for those of us who need a reminder that we are on the right track. Such things start with simple steps and the trails lead forward from there. There are at least four trails that we can track to this success. The first trail was picked from the Biodiesel Co-op and a meeting that happened over a year ago when the Co-op was getting started. That introduced Alaya Aquarian as well as both Alex and Chris Pine into the picture courtesy of the other Biodiesel Co-op people that brought that group together. Alex is the activist-student-son of Chris Pine who is a professional Urban Planner. Alex became aware of the energy and environmental issues tied to Biodiesel and brought his Dad back into the fold as an activist. Together they are a formidable activist team. The second trail was picked up at the Green Drinks event in Culver City organized by Barent Roth and his group. That is where Sara Laimon and Gabriel Avenna came into the picture, who work together at Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale. They were building environmental awareness in their students as well as working on outside projects. During the last four years of developing their program, they are the ones who developed the Green Ambassador idea and created meetings at the Charter School to get the Ambassador program started. Sara and Gabriel started to become aware of the Club through that meeting and that is also where Anna Cummins met Sara. Anna has helped with all this and her remembrance helps us see how this all works. “I also met Sara at Green Drinks, and we instantly connected on the anti-plastics (bringyourown.org) and environmental education front. Sara called me up months back, to say she had funding to put on a youth eco-summit addressing plastics, organic food, biodiesel and other issues, and needed help organizing.” “We met, outlined a plan and a budget, found a venue (Crossroads) and from there, Sara threw her heart and soul into alerting the LA youth community to be part of the event. I helped from the sidelines, but it was really Sara's vision, charisma, and passion that made the day such a tremendous success. That, and the kids of course....” The early meeting was about eight months ago and some how Chris and Alex Pine had connected with Sara and Gabriel for these meetings. That connection may have come from the Co-op, from Green Drinks, or from the Sustainable Transport Club newsletter, a bit of each or from some other means – but the connections were happening and that meant the ambassadors started with students from two high schools. This is where the third trail became known and that is the one forged by Josh Tickell who was leading the first trainings on biodiesel. The trail that brought him there goes back to 1996 when he started his journeys with the Veggie Van raising awareness of biodiesel with road trips across the country. That was followed by his book “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank”, which is a good primer on this subject. Here he was over ten years later helping to kick start the biodiesel Green Ambassadors section by giving a rousing lesson on energy and how to make BioDiesel. There were maybe a dozen students and all the adults mentioned as well as a few more from the school and from our Club. The Green Ambassadors were ready to tackle energy independence. Over the next six months the Ambassadors got their feet on the ground and started doing the work including working tables a the Energy events sponsored by Jane Harmon with Toyota and going on eco safaris to brazil using money they raised them selves. They even produced environmental documentaries that are posted on U-Tube. Then the Activists mentioned above including people from lots of groups put together a Biodiesel strategy session in Santa Monica. Josh and Gabriel were two of the main people behind this effort. This is where the fourth trail gets connected. That trail comes from Kelly Olsen who heard about the meeting from an organizer for the Sustainable Transport Club. Kelly has known the organizer since high school and went on to be an activist politician in Santa Monica having served as a slow growth, social justice representative on both the City Council and the Planning Commission. He has also helped out the Club on a number of occasions. Kelly was so inspired by the Green Ambassadors presentation at the meeting as well as by all the great energy at that meeting that he decided to get people involved in Biodiesel. He started with his friends at Southern California Disposal and brought Joe Gershen in to help. Joe is with both Green Depot and Tellurian Energy. Kelly met him at that same meeting upon the information provided by the Club organizer. Together they got Southern California Disposal started on Biodiesel. Not only was this a good accomplishment but by working with Sara, Kelly was able to get Southern California Disposal to step up and get them to sponsor the Youth Summit. This sponsor ship not only covered the expense of the summit but it got the students some pretty cool t-shirts. The event was a wonderful success with tremendous student involvement and participation from the community. Kelly was able to bring in the Mayor, Richard Bloom and Council Member Kevin McKeown to the event. Both of these community leaders are part of our Club, in part due to Kelly’s long-standing relationships. Then too Kevin is pretty much a founding member from our roots in the Westside Greens. In addition, there was good press coverage with a story in the Santa Monica Daily Press as well as the Mirror. The event took the Green Ambassadors from having a presence in four schools to over a dozen schools. Given that that took less than eight months it presents an awesome possibility for what twelve schools can accomplish together. Go Green Ambassadors go. The sponsor ship provided by Southern California Disposal made this possible and shows how you can help find such sponsor ship. Please let Sara know of any contacts or interest in this respect saralaimon@yahoo.com 310-940-1626. That Sponsorship was a real win/win for both the Ambassadors and Southern California Disposal Company. The Company got really good public relations from the event with strong mention in the press, favorable consideration from other local companies in Santa Monica as well as favorable contact with local leaders. They will continue to see benefits from their new role as leaders in the use of Biodiesel in the trash hauling industry. This whole story really shows how this process works. It is a process of connections building to more connections and greater and greater results. It involves people doing what they can when they can to talk the talk and help when they can. It clearly shows one of the main roles that the Sustainable Transport Club plays in building these connections and getting the word out about events. This process works and you are invited to contribute whenever you can. Special thanks to the players in this success story – you and the others like you in our Club are the ones making this happen for our kids. Links Article in Santa Monica Daily Press http://www.smdp.com/site/archives/053107.pdf (story page three, picture page eleven.) |
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Biodiesel Co-op Connect with Barak Obama – PR Coup A good public relations and political connection was brought together by Kriss Moller and the people at Conserv Fuel along with the people from the Biodiesel Co-op. They got Presidential Candidate Barak Obama to speak at the Biodiesel USA station In Brentwood. Not only did the Senator seem to get what we are doing and speak well to the subject at a press conference but he acknowledged the work we are doing and the leadership we are all showing in addition to naming Kriss Moller Michel Cicero, Kent Bullard and Erik for the work they are doing. It is good that the hard working activist get acknowledged. Here is the headline and some content from his presentation Senator Barack Obama Visits Conserv Fuel Station to Address Energy Policy BRENTWOOD, CA – Senator Barack Obama today visited the
Conserv Fuel filling station to make a speech about energy policy as he
pursues the Democratic presidential nomination. Located on the corner of San
Vicente and Barrington in the heart of Brentwood, California, Conserv Fuel is
one of the first stations in Los Angeles to offer B99 biodiesel and provided
an ideal backdrop for the Senator's statements. Senator Obama was greeted at
the station by Conserv Fuel founder Kristopher Moller, along with members of
the Los Angeles Biodiesel Co-op. For more information and to see a film clip go to The Co-op info is at www.labiodieselcoop.org |
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Santa Monica Bicycles – Expo Path, SMC, and a North/South commuter route There are some powerful influences converging in Santa Monica that might just result in solid progress toward it becoming a real bicycle city. Here are a few of the key items: - The Expo bike path is going into design phase to be constructed with the light rail link. - Santa Monica College is working on dealing with parking and traffic issues - Santa Monica College has both staff and students interested in bicycle solutions - Santa Monica College is right on the best north south commute route for bicycles (17th and or 16th Street) - Santa Monica has some really great bicycle advocates and activists - The City of Santa Monica has staff, council and board members all supportive of bicycle issues. - The north south commute traffic has become unreasonable and intolerable for people living from Olympic to Rose What we need now is a focus and a concerted effort to bring all this into play. Here is an idea that might just do that. The idea is to concentrate our effort on getting a bicycle commute route that would connect from our best bicycle lane on Broadway down 17th street to the Exposition bike path between Colorado and Olympic. Connect that all the way into the SMC campus, through the campus out onto a bicycle safe street (16th or 17th) that would go down to Penmar Park and through to the bicycle lane on Rose. If we can work this up in conjunction with the Expo path then we would be creating a safe bicycle solution that would allow most of Santa Monica to get to most of Venice and Mar Vista safely and vis-a-versa. If we can add to that a few bicycle amenities along exposition from Centinella to Sepulveda then we would have Culver City thrown in for good measure. Please get in touch so we can schedule a meeting about this idea. Call 310-450-7419 or reply to this email if you wan to help on this one. |
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Strategy Session - Bringing Sustainable Transport to our Areas- end of July It is time for us to figure out the best way forward – let’s have a meeting! The Club has accomplished great things over the last year including building our mailing list to over a thousand people. We have good people all over the country and there are some strong concentrations here in Southern California. The strongest areas are the central one from downtown LA to the Ocean, Pasadena/Glendale, The San Fernando Valley Santa Barbara and South Bay (in no particular order). We have some great activists with some great ideas about how to move our communities toward sustainability. Lets schedule a session with a few presentations and some working sessions about what to do to move forward. Here are some of the topics that might work: Working with Cities - Projects like the Santa Monica Project how they work and what to focus on. Outreach
and Education – tabling, special events, screenings etc membership
building Legislative efforts – city, county, state and federal avenues for changing laws Building community action groups – we have good concentrations of people –what do we do with that? Building Infrastructure – what do we need and where do we need it, biodiesel, electric, what else? Business development – how can we foster businesses that provide sustainable transport and what are the real opportunities that work now What are you interested in working on that can benefit from having the Club working together from all the different options for sustainability? When would be a good time to have the meeting? We need your feedback so we can put a good meeting together and choose a venue that will be best suited to the meeting. Please let us know where you are located so we can take that into account |
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Save the date and sign up now for Alt Car Expo. Oct 19th and 20th This incredible Expo is happening again and on a better date. This should be even better than last year so please get registered asap to be a part of this great event. It is a good time to start taking it up with your friends and stand by to receive more information that you can forward to your mailing lists. Right now the thing is to make sure the right people get their booths lined up so please think about who you know should be in this. Starting the buzz going is a good idea as well. The Club intends to have a booth at the event and can be a way for you to contribute and to get your information to the attendees. Please get in touch is we can help on that level and if you would be able to jump in and be a part of this great event. We welcome people to help at our booth and we can coordinate making volunteers available to the organizers. If you let us know at the Club by replying to this email or by calling 310-450-7419 that would be great. Making contact through the Club lets the organizers know how we are contributing to the effort. Here is information from the organizers to get you up to speed with what is happening: Dear AltCar Exhibitor: We are thrilled to
announce our Second AltCar Expo, the Alternative Energy & Transportation
Expo will take place on Friday, October 19 & Saturday, October 20th, 2007
at Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport. The AltCar Expo held last
December for the first time was a phenomenal success. We exceeded all
expectations for attendance and media exposure, with members of the press
coming from Europe, Asia and from all of the major National Sources. Over
four dozen "scouts" also attended the event, gathering information
for the many green and sustainable television and feature productions that
are now in the works. Sponsors and exhibitors
experienced a high point in the alternative transportation movement and
reported to us that AltCar Expo attracted the most educated and committed
attendees that they had ever experienced. Our attendees consisted
of fleet operators, municipalities, Industry leaders, lawmakers, investors,
related area professionals and targeted consumers. Vehicles and other product
were actually sold directly from the Expo and many exciting partnerships were
forged. Our standing room only seminars hosted such renowned experts such as
James Woolsey, Terry Tamminen, Dr. Andrew Frank and many more. On the first day of
AltCar Expo we were honored by the arrival of Lee Iacocca, who came to spend
several hours viewing each exhibit, talking with exhibitors and immersing
himself in the newest technologies. The City of Santa Monica
will again be the presenting sponsor of the event. All of our other sponsors
are returning, as well as a number of new ones. And, we have heard from over
80% percent of our exhibitors that they will return as well. For the upcoming
AltCar Expo we will also be adding a dedicated Alternative Energy section, an
extended transportation and urban planning area, doubling our seminar tracks
and adding many other special features. On the opening day, Friday, we will
offer the first few hours exclusively for press and professionals. We will
also expand the wildly popular Ride & Drive area. As we do for both AltCar
Expo and our equally successful AltBuild Expo (now in its fourth year), we
will conduct an extensive marketing, advertising and public relations
campaign that will include utility bill inserts, advertisements as well as a
substantial direct mail campaign through the marketing partnership of several
hundred associations and organizations. And, as always, AltCar Expo and all
of our accompanying seminars and speakers programs, will remain free of
charge for attendees. Due to the popularity of the
event, we are offering only a limited number of exhibit spaces to companies,
agencies or organizations that can bring something vital to the Expo and we
look forward to speaking with you regarding this opportunity. Thank you for your time
and consideration. Christine Dzilvelis AltCar Expo / AltBuild
Expo Platia Productions Direct Line (310)
390-2930 This information was taken from the web site. More information is available at www.atlcarexpo.com |
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July 4th Santa Monica and Ventura Who wants to join the Parade! – Bicycles, Electric Motor Scooters & Full EV’s Santa Monica Santa Monica is having a 4th of July Parade this year and you have a shot at participating. We can help turn this into a sustainable parade by turning out on our bicycles and electric vehicles of all kinds. They might even want a Biodiesel vehicle! Dennis Allard is the contact for organizing the vehicles (info Below) and he has some fun things in mind as follows: “It would be nice to find some high wheelers, unicycles,
and It would be good to decorate your electric vehicles, although that is optional and, in a way, an electric vehicle tends to *be* a self-announcing kind of thing. Remember, any vehicle in the parade has to fill out an application form in advance, by June 26. If you know other people and/or groups who want to be in the parade *as* a group, they should also apply as a group” Fun signs and decorations sound like the ticket so check it out and lets help turn out the sustainable troops for this one. We can start to define our great country as a stand for sustainability. Paul Scott wanted me to get word out and try to get some EV’s to the parade – who is up for EV’s on parade? Here is more information from the organizers: Bicycle groups/clubs/individuals are being encouraged to participate. A group of residents from the Ocean Park Association and North of Montana Association are organizing the inaugural parade on Main Street this July 4th. It's going to be very "small town," kid-friendly and on Main Street, from 9:30 to 10:30 AM on Wednesday, July 4th. We've got participation from the Police, Fire Department, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Council Members, the Daily Press, the Chamber of Commerce and many others. Retiring Roosevelt Principal Jerry Harris is our Honorary Grand Marshal. We'd love to have more of the community join us. Thanks to a City grant, participation is free. The deadline for groups, vehicles and those with pets to apply is June 26th. We are evaluating participation on a first come basis. Contact information: Parade web page: http://www.opa-sm.org/parade Parade flyer: http://www.opa-sm.org/parade/flyer.doc Group application: http://www.opa-sm.org/parade/parade_app.pdf Email contact: parade@opa-sm.org Bicycle club contact: Dennis Allard <allard-nospam- parade@oceanpark.com> Families and individuals can register the morning of the event. Check-in opens at 7:45 AM the morning of July 4th in front of City Hall. And we need spectators, too! Ventura County The City of Ventura and the Los
Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club will fuel the City toward a fossil-free
future as they showcase a fleet of alternative vehicles! Join Brian
Brennan, Ventura City Councilmember and
M.C. of the festivities. Come explore possibilities for a
cleaner, greener planet. Helping to be part of the solution can be fun! Win prizes in our continuous
drawing! See hands-on demonstrations that make sense! Navigate our skateboard course or
let your kids chalk paint! Exhibits: Amtrak • SCAT Bus info & LNG
Honda • Santa Barbara Electric Bike Freeline Skateboarders • The Ride
Scooter Rav 4 electric SUV & Solar
Electric Prius Mercedes Benz '83 - converted for
veggie oil fuel • Mercedes Benz '85 with biodiesel fuel Electric Truck and Trailor •
Bicycles of all kinds For
more information call: (805) 962-8415 |
Results of AFV Conference The results are in from the conference that was called Alternative Fuels & Vehicles
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ST Club International – EV Contacts overseas starting to develop – UK To Japan Not only do we have close to a dozen people on or mailing list that are out of the country but those connections are starting to work. A recent contact with the Electric Vehicle people in the UK put us in contact with them and put them in contact with our EV people here including Plug In America. Plug In America, specifically Paul Scott, was able to help connect the English folks with a person in Japan who has opened up communication between Japan EV people and the English EV people. We are now sharing information and building the contacts it takes to advance the use of Electric vehicles across half the globe – cool huh! While on this subject here is a Report on Electric Vehicles in the United Kingdom There were a delightful number of EV’s on the road in London. The reports received indicated that over 500 G-Wiz cars have been sold there. They are not just sold but can be seen all over. These are sub compact all electric cars that go 40-45 mph with enough range to work in a congested City like London. It is reasonably certain they are exempt from the automobile congestion tax. These are produced in India and have ties to the Westside here as they showed up at our Electric Vehicle Event at Clover park a couple of years ago. They showed late so only the hearty ones got to see them. One of the things that happened during the survey was that this noble little thing came under attack. The attack was based on the safety specifications for the vehicle that are below those of their more established gas-sucking fume spewing peers. Of course these only go 40-45 miles per hour and under city conditions in London that speed is hard to attain for any vehicle so on some level it is a tempest in a British teapot. The good thing about them being attacked is that things are only attacked when they become a threat to the established order. The other good thing is that the attack has raised people’s awareness of the vehicles existence. The scary thing about the attack is that the word spread really fast and far. It was discussed in circles outside London almost immediately. On ething that this draws our attention to is the need to get safety standards in place for this new category of vehicle. These vehicles exist in the gap between full speed cars and the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs). The NEVs are limited to 25 mph by definition. We have safety standards for both of these but nothing in between for four wheel vehicles. The 40 to 45 miles per hour speed is what is needed to keep up with traffic in the congested urban setting. Vehicles that can go that fast can operate safely on surface streets with other full speed vehicles. Currently they would have to meet the same standard as the full speed vehicles and those standards are to keep people safe at speeds over 70 miles per hour. There is a huge difference between a crash at 70 mph and one at 40 mph. IN addition a vehicle that is on surface streets at 40 mph can respond to potential accidents and reduce their speed well below 25 mph very rapidly. Vehicles at faster speeds have much less response time to brake. Asking new companies producing these slower vehicles to meet standards that are not relevant is a huge obstacle in developing new alternatives. The expense of the extra equipent to meet the standards is substantial and the testing requirements are huge. Together these represent a legislated blocking of new technology and government support for huge companies controlling the market place. It is very much counter to free enterprise. We need safety standards from the Federal Government that are appropriate for a vehicle limited to 45 mph and we need these standards for both 4 wheel and 2 wheel vehicles. I trust we can keep up on the developments in the United Kingdom through our new friends over there. Here is information from them along with web links. Hi - many heartfelt thanks to Plug-In America for helping
me so promptly to find a Japanese English-speaking EV contact - this
exclusive video report is the result! :) Enjoy! New!
Eco Car World 2007, Yokohama, Japan. EVUK exclusive video report http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index6.html#Eco_Car_World_2007_Yokohama
Moira Govan, EVUK - still in Tokyo... From Electric Vehicles UK - www.EVUK.co.uk - a UK non-profit campaign website promoting Zero-Emission Electric Vehicles and Related Renewable Energy Technologies. Join the green `Axis of EVol-ution`! |
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Biodiesel Roundtable - Save the date and get involved – Aug 1st This is a joint effort of the Biodiesel Co-op and the Working Task Force. Get involved early and lets make this a great one.
Second Biodiesel Roundtable ---Save the Date: August 1, 2007----- Time and Location: TBD Greetings fellow Biodiesel
friends, supporters and activists! Because this is to be a
community workshop, we need leaders who are knowledgeable about each one of these
areas and who can formulate the action plan for these groups the day of the
event. Remember: the goal is to come away with results! We are calling anyone who can commit to being
involved in any of these areas to sign up below and return this form via
e-mail to Sandra Valencia (scv8773@lausd.net).
The goal is for three individuals to share in the leadership responsibilities
of each group: - Group Coordinator: Oversee the group, run meetings, keep everyone on track subject wise and time wise - Project Manager: Organize information and
formulate summaries from the group to present at the end of the meeting when
the groups come back together - Support Leader: Keep the project moving forward
and make sure people know what is expected of them. The five key
areas/goals are: ___________________
_________________ _______________ _____________ Your name here Role E-mail ___________________
_________________ _______________ _____________ Your name here Role E-mail Your name here Role E-mail 4) School Buses and Fleets: We want to get
all diesel school buses and fleets running on Biodiesel. ___________________
_________________ _______________ _____________ Your name here Role E-mail
Your name here Role E-mail |
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Mini Compact Cars happening now – Smart Cars
available in Glendale One of the things that is extending the
fuels supply in the rest of the world is people using smaller cars with much higher
miles per gallon. Seeing how this was not only saving people money but also
making parking so much easier for people in England really drove the point
home. There were dozens of models that were mini-compact in size that showed
up in huge numbers on the English roads. Two models that we have here include
the Mini Cooper and the Smart Car. The Smart car was everywhere in England
and now it is available in LA County thanks to Environmental Motors and Zap
Cars. You can help lead the way by getting going
with one of these mini compact high miles per gallon cars. The Smart Car gets
over 60 mpg. These cars are the first generation to make it into the US
market and carry the Mercedes brand. They are almost certainly going to be
collectors’ items and are one sure way to help get LA to see they do not need
to use an SUV to get from one place to another. At the very least you would
get bragging rights for both your mileage and for being Greener than most. Here is some information from the dealer who
is carrying these beauties. ENVIRONMENTAL MOTORS THE LARGEST
ENVIRONMENTAL CAR DEALERSHIP IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO NOW
FEATURE THE ‘SMART CAR’ Southern California’s largest EV car
dealership is the only dealer in So Cal to stock the SMART CAR Coupe &
Cabrio. “There is no car in the world that is more
fun to drive that this little 8 foot very safe vehicle. We speak from
experience. It is like driving a smiley face down the road, no kidding!
Everyone becomes your friend,” said Taryn Sokolow, Environmental Motors’
Director of Sales. EVM, based in Glendale, CA was founded over
6 years ago by Kent Sokolow, who has been consistently driving electric cars
for the last 8 years long before it was ‘the cool thing to do’. EVM is dedicated to selling a broad
selection of environmentally friendly ultra high efficiency and 100% electric
automobiles, scooters, personal transporters and all terrain vehicles. The
family has been an automotive industry leader for over 54 years. EVM has been
in business since the start of the millennium selling alternative
transportation vehicles such as the Sparrow, Lee Lacocca’s eBIKE and the Ural
Side Car Motorcycle. EVM is especially excited about the prospects for the
future of Electric Vehicles and the extremely high mileage (60mpg+) Smart Cars. About Smart Car The Smart™ car concept is derived from the
innovativeness and ingenuity of Swatch CEO Nicolas Hayek. In 1994, Swatch
teamed up with Daimler-Benz to design and develop the purpose-built factory
complex known as Smartville in Hambach, Lorraine, France, as a joint-venture
to bring together the renowned vehicle engineering and logistics of
Daimler-Benz and the design creativity and marketing expertise of Swatch. For
instance, the Smart™ car's design and marketing plans called for exterior
colors, which can be easily modified by a Smart technician simply by changing
out the body panels of the car within 20 minutes. In short, the Smart™ in
itself is a unique concept combining quality German engineering and passenger
safety with performance, style, comfort, and efficiency. Think...Smart.
Live...Smart. Drive...Smart and “don’t wait ‘til 2008”. EnVironmental Motors Taryn Sokolow 134 S. Glendale Ave. Glendale, CA 91205 Office 818.549.0000 Fax 818.549.0020 E-mail taryn@environmentalmotors.com www.environmentalmotors.com |
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Review of Phoenix Motor Cars – full capacity Electric Vehicles you can buy now Most of you know about the Phoenix car – heck a few of you work for them. Those of you who are wondering below is a link to an article about what they are like. The bottom line is that you can purchase a full speed full capacity electric vehicle and be driving it as soon as they get it to you. That means that you would clean up your pollution and the production of green house gasses by over fifty percent reduction. And you would reduce your fuel costs considerably. The mileage equivalent on the Phoenix has not been identified as yet but it should be in the same ballpark as the RAV4 EV, which is generally accepted to have the equivalent of 125 miles per gallon equivalent. The Phoenix is a bigger vehicle so it may only get 100 mpg equivalent. The person writing the article is not and EV driver so he does not fully understand about the range issue on an EV. The key to understanding EV’s is that they are a battery driven device just like your cell phone. You know how to keep your cell phone charged and the same is true for an EV. First on the list is the fact that 90 percent of the people in this country drive less than 100 miles per day. EV’s are plugged in every night so the range of over 100 miles is plenty for every day use. The Phoenix can be charged in 10 minutes from special chargers so they can be used for commercial use and get 400 plus miles a day when being charged on legally mandated rest periods (morning and afternoon breaks and lunch time). Any deliver or construction application is just fine. With the Phoenix being produced here in So Cal we can be sure of having a network of such special chargers here before anywhere else. A ten minute fill up would get you everywhere from San Diego to Santa Barbara with easy rest stops along the way. It will be no time before they show up in enough places to be able to make the San Francisco run in a reasonable day. Anyone with the money to match their convictions can be in a Phoenix and walking their talk ASAP. Do you think that the first ones produced will have good collectors value? Here is the link to the article http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2136457,00.asp Here is the direct link to the company web site – be sure to tell them the Sustainable Transport Club sent you http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/ |
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AB 700 Santa Monica Airport Pollution Study Question: What is less sustainable than one person in an SUV? Answer: One Celebrity in a Helicopter - the smallest helicopters get less than one mile per gallon. Question: What is less sustainable than one person in a helicopter? Answer: One Celebrity in a corporate Jet - corporate jets are measured in gallons per mile and have virtually no exhaust emissions standards. Ohh, by the way in case you thought those were going to be jokes – the joke is on us. The pollution generated by these unsustainable modes of transport is being dumped on the westside from Sepulveda to the Ocean. The degree to which this is a problem is being documented and there is another chance to take a step forward with the funding proposed in the California State bill AB 700. AB 700 would fund a yearlong study of the pollution coming from the Santa Monica Airport. It will give a clear picture of exactly what sort of problem we have as a result of these unsustainable vehicles. Any thing you can do to help get support for this effort would be appreciated. If Santa Monica can get a clear picture of how small aircraft are effecting local areas that would help all of California understand how to deal with this part of our transportation mix. While we are on this subject lets do a little information gathering. What uses of small and medium size jets make sense? Who uses these jets for the public good? What uses of helicopters make sense? Who other than fire, medivac and police use these helicopters for the public good? Do news helicopters really serve the public good? Are there more sustainable ways to accomplish the same result like maybe using fixed wing aircraft? Does anyone have information about fuel use for helicopters verses fixed wing aircraft? Are there pollution difference between Jets, helicopters and propeller driven fixed wing aircraft? Anyone interested in this issue can get involved through the Friends of Sunset Park. They have more information at their website. http://www.friendsofsunsetpark.org. They have a discussion about his assembly bill at http://www.friendsofsunsetpark.org/06_07.pdf |
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